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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-11-29 Parks & Rec. Meeting Minutes - Approved PARKS AND RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - 6:00 p.m. Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, the Parks & Recreation Committee of the City of Centerville held a scheduled meeting Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at Centerville City Hall, 1880 Main Street. Present: Chairperson Patrick Branch Vice-Chairperson Jon Grahek Committee Member Kevin Amundsen Committee Member Brian Peterson Committee Member Suzanne Seeley Committee Member Mark Haiden Absent: None Appearances: 1. Tom Wilharber, Mayor 2. Mr. Dallas Larson, Centerville City Administrator I. CALL TO ORDER Roll Call Chairperson Pat Branch called the November 29, 2011 Parks & Recreation Committee Special Meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. II. SET AGENDA Motion was made by Committee Member Haiden, seconded by Committee Member Amundsen, to set the agenda as proposed. Motion carried unanimously. III. Consideration of Minutes Consideration of the November Parks and Recreation Committee meeting are deferred to the th December 7 meeting. IV. Purpose: This is a special meeting of the committee for one specific purpose. In September, the City Council made a budget decision that resulted in the reduction of two staff members. That decision has had a major impact on the Parks and Recreation Committee. This special meeting of the Parks and Recreation Committee has been called to assess that impact and to make recommendations to the City Council manage that impact. V. Discussion Points The following items were discussed at the regularly scheduled November Parks and Recreation Committee meeting. They are included here and were used at this special meeting of the committee as a departure point, so as to build upon rather than repeating what had transpired at previous meetings.  Who do we contact if we know we can’t make an upcoming Park and Recreation meeting?  How will the rest of the committee be informed if there will not be a quorum present? Or that the meeting is to be cancelled?  Will there be a staff person who can research previous decisions, motions and historical data?  Who do we contact for legal requirements? (Posting for quorums and additional meetings, coordination of committee email communications, forwarding legal questions or issues for input from the city lawyer, etc.) Removing a committee member to record meeting minutes does not work well.  Essentially, one of our members is removed from discussions, brain-storming and the group interactions. Overall our meeting is less effective.  Park and Recreation Committee members did not volunteer to be minute takers.  We may lose members who do not type well or who feel it is a poor use of three hours of their time. The Park and Recreation Committee will have a more difficult time recruiting  volunteers with more of our volunteer hours going to “support issues” and less to offering our community park related programs. These issues will be difficult to overcome. All committee members present  indicated they would like the City Council to address these concerns. VI. Issues: 1. Taking meeting minutes and preparation of meeting packets: Taking and preparing meeting minutes is a burden on the committee. Committee members are volunteers interested is maintaining and improving the City’s parks. Committee members did not volunteer to do secretarial work and lack the required skills. Because of our limited skills, taking minutes removes one committee member each month from full participation in the meeting discussions. 2. Consistency of staff support from the City: Parks and Recreation has gone from having a dedicated full time City staff assistance to (in the perception of the committee) no staff assistance. 3. Legality of Committee actions: There are certain State statues, such as the open meeting and record keeping, that the committee must follow. In addition, the committee members are volunteers; not elect officials nor city employees. There are limits to what volunteers can do. Actions that obligate the City should be done by either City staff or elected officials/ 4. Access to Parks and Rec History There is a frequent need to research or to know the past history of committee and council actions. Consistency of actions or decisions from one year to the next is an important aspect of management. Membership on this committee has been rather stable, but as individuals are record keeping is not. There is a continuing need to have access to minute or general knowledge of past actions. 5. Projects requiring research and follow-up during normal business hours: In prior years the Parks and Rec staff assistant handle all committee business that had to be done during normal business hours. The majority of committee members are not available to do business during the normal work week. VII. Proposed Solutions 1. Hire a Scribe: See the recommendation below. The committee has tried to have a committee member take the minutes. That is not a satisfactory solution. The committee strongly feels that a dedicated and skilled person is needed to take and maintain the minutes. See actions items 2. Increased Assistance from the Staff: The general perception of the committee members is that the committee has gone from excellent staff support to no staff support. The City Administrator needs to take action to provide the committee the needed support. This support may come from multiple staff members rather than one dedicated member. See City Administrators e-mail message to his staff dated Nov. 30, 2011. 3. User friendly Special Events application: The City has a Special Permit form. That form is a one size fits all form that covers the complexity of major events. A simple one page form is need for those who come in and request the use of a city park for a single event or for use of sports facilities on a regularly scheduled basis. This would simplify the process and ensure the required minimum information is available. Add an “Action Item” section to the routine meeting minutes: 4. To make it easier to track action items, a new section will be added to the standard meeting minutes. See section X below. 5. Recruit volunteers to take on specific projects: It may be helpful to recruit a series of volunteers to work specific projects for the city. Examples of these project may include: Music-in-the-Parks, Fete de Lacs sporting events, maintenance of city gardens, city historian. VIII. Recommendations: 1.1. The following m otion was made by Committee Member Seeley, seconded by Committee . Member Haiden. The motion carried unanimously “Request City Council approve funding to hire a committee scribe. The requirement is for five to six hours per month to transcribe meeting minutes at an estimated cost of $900 per year.” IX. Adjournment: Motion was made by Committee Member Grahek. Seconded by Committee Member Peterson, to adjourn th the November 29 special meeting of the Parks and Recreation Committee at 7:35 p.m. All in favor. Motion carried unanimously. X. Action Items: Action item Assigned Person Due Date Date Closed Committee Scribe - present D. Larson 12/14 Open recommendation to Council Scribe job description P. Branch 12/8 Simplified Special Permit City Staff 12/30 Form Action item section added to P&R Committee 12/07 committee minutes Plan to improve staff D. Larson 12/07 See e-mail assistance note from D. Larson to staff 11/30